20th June 2022: A Week in Parliament

Stewarton Bonnet Guild

Three years after the last event, it was great to attend Stewarton Bonnet Guild festival. The crowds on the streets of Stewarton were incredible. While the weather certainly helped, it was proof indeed that communities want to get back to normal and be out and about, socialising and supporting each other. I thought it was a nice gesture to have crowning ceremonies for the 2020 and 2021 Queens who obviously missed out due to covid. The parade too had many floats and participants so well done all who helped organise and well done to the community for showing such support.

Take A Bow

Take a Bow Development Trust celebrated 10 years by putting on the musical Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Grand Hall. It was a great event, showcasing the talent and enthusiasm of so many kids. It was impressive to see some who have been with Take a Bow for the ten-year journey and hear how many have gone on to courses associated with the arts following their experiences with Take A Bow. Most heartening of all though was seeing the unbridled joy of the youngest performers, who were having a ball while performing!

Having taken over the former New Farm Community Centre in 2019 just pre covid, then I am sure the organisation will go from strength to strength. The board of trustees need to be commended too for the work they are putting in to support the running of the centre and the company.

Johnson’s Ethics

It says it all when Boris Johnson has had a second ethics advisor quit because of his behaviour, actions, lack of morality and willingness to ignore the Ministerial Code he is supposed to be bound to. The fact that Johnson has re-written the code too so that being found to have broken the Ministerial Code is no longer an immediate resigning matter is no coincidence either. The man is corrupt to the core and his willingness to break the Northern Ireland protocol, an international treaty is further proof of this. The bizarre aspect is that Northern Ireland’s economy is fairing ok in relative terms and having access to the single market has proven to be an advantage to the country. The DUP and unionists do not like the fact that there are additional checks required for goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland. However, that is the reality of leaving the Single Market and EU Customs arrangements. The UK Government never takes responsibility and still blames the EU - an easy deflection trick.

HS2

The UK Government quietly announced that the spur that would allow high speed trains to run to Scotland from the Birmingham line being constructed has now been abandoned. This is another broken promise as we were assured that from day one of HS2, trains would run to Scotland. In many ways it is no real surprise that the spur to Scotland has been abandoned but it is still a disgrace and it just adds to more recent betrayals such as the Scottish Carbon Capture Cluster.